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October domestic violence awareness month in Fort Morgan

Public hearing set Nov. 6 on new hotel/restaurant liquor license

ByJENNI GRUBBS Times Staff Writer

Posted:
10/03/2012 03:43:52 PM MDT

Fort Morgan Mayor Terry McAlister shakes hands with Jan Schiller, executive director of SHARE, Inc., after giving her the signed proclamation of October as National Domestic Violence Awareness Month in Fort Morgan.

Fort Morgan Mayor Terry McAlister on Tuesday night proclaimed October to be National Domestic Violence Awareness Month in Fort Morgan.

"The impact of domestic violence is wide-ranging, directly affecting individuals and society as a whole, here in this community, throughout the United States and the world," McAlister read.

As part of the proclamation, the mayor urged people to "actively participate in the scheduled activities and programs to work toward improving victim safety and holding perpetrators of domestic abuse accountable for their actions against individuals and our society as a whole."

After he read the proclamation, the mayor gave it to Jan Schiller, the executive director of S.H.A.R.E., Inc., which is a nonprofit safe house facility and domestic violence program in Fort Morgan that serves battered women and their children in Morgan County and northeast Colorado.

"Thank you for the recognition," Schiller told the mayor and council members. "We really appreciate it. "

She told the council and the public about an event related to raising domestic violence awareness that will happen later this month in Fort Morgan.

"Love, Sex & Lies: An Intimacy Checkup -- How healthy are your intimate relationships?" will be held from noon to 1 p.m. on Tuesday,Oct. 9 at Morgan Community College. There will be free pizza, and attendees will be invited to take a quick relationship survey and then watch a video, "Inside Domestic Violence: The Power & Control Wheel.

S.H.A.R.E also runs the Safe Haven Project, which provides supervised parenting time -- nearly always by court order -- and safe exchanges for children. This program has been running since 2007, according to Schiller.

"We do most of the supervised visits in evenings and weekends," she said, adding that these supervised visits are not only for court orders related to domestic violence, but also to drugs and other crimes. "It's just another service to the community."

City Manager Jeff Wells, who has served as prosecutor in Fort Morgan Municipal Court for quite a few years, said that the city does have "situations involving domestic violence on a regular basis."

He called the work done by S.H.A.R.E. and other local groups, like Sexual Assault Response Advocates, Inc., to help victims of domestic violence "invaluable."

McAlister also told Schiller that he fully supports her group's efforts.

"I appreciate all you do," he said.

The mayor also proclaimed Oct. 1 to 5 as Utilities Week in the city.

"We, the citizens of Fort Morgan, place high value on local control over community services and therefore have chosen to operate community-owned, locally controlled, not-for-profit utilities, and as consumers and owners of our utilities, have a direct say in utility operations and policies," the mayor read.

"The city of Fort Morgan utilities will continue to work to bring lower-cost, safe, reliable utilities to community homes and businesses just as it has since 1906, the year when the electric utility was created, to serve all of the citizens of Fort Morgan," he continued.

As part of the week's events, the city held a free community barbecue at lunchtime today, with city employees cooking up hamburgers, hot dogs and more.

The annual event is meant to thank the city's utility customers and provide them information about the utilities.

Watch the Times later this week for coverage of the utilities barbecue.

Liquor licenses

Acting as the local liquor licensing authority, the council accepted an application for a new hotel and restaurant liquor license -- malt, vinous and spirituous liquors for El Roble Inc., doing business as Casa Patron, at 1215 W. Platte Ave.

City Clerk/Public Information Officer John Brennan told the council that this is the former Hale's Diner building.

He pointed out that the applicants would have to establish the needs of the neighborhood regarding a new business potentially serving liquor. For this purpose, the neighborhood is considered to be the whole city.

Mayor Terry McAlister asked one of the partners in El Roble, who was at the meeting, about the plans for the new business, whether there would be a bar or dancing along with the restaurant.

Gabriel Gomez told the council that the intention was to open a restaurant similar to the 3 Margaritas chain, serving Mexican food and margaritas with the meals.

"We don't leave an open bar," he said. "We're just planning on a serving bar."

A public hearing on the liquor license application will be held Nov. 6 at the council meeting that night.

The council also approved an application for a special event permit from Fort Morgan Elks Lodge for an event on Oct. 19.

Brennan noted that this brings the Elks' total days of special events permits to nine in 2012. The lodge is limited to 15 per year by state law.

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